Source: The Herald – Breaking news.
The committee also said Zimra’s Commissioner-General, Ms Regina Chinamasa, had confirmed that in 2021, the e-service system was non-functional, prompting the Authority to put in place mechanisms to ensure that taxpayers were able to submit their returns to facilitate revenue collection. 
Farirai Machivenyika-Senior Reporter
THE e-service platform being used by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) must be expeditiously improved to enable taxpayers to submit returns timeously and ensure there are no losses in the revenue collection process, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee has said.
In a report tabled in Parliament last week, the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) called upon Zimra to ensure that the Tax Revenue Management System (TaRMS) is fully functional by year-end and also come up with comprehensive contingency plans to address any potential systems failure that may affect revenue collection.
The PAC report was presented to Parliament last week following the Auditor-General’s 2021 and 2022 reports which noted unreliable performance of the tax collector’s e-service platform since 2016.
“The audit observed that the Authority’s e-service platform had not been performing as expected, since 2016. It experienced congestion during peak periods of returns submission and in 2021 the system was not able to process all the 364 011 returns and its downtime was 0,45 percent and 0,95 percent, which was far above the tolerable downtime rate of 0,02 percent.
The committee also said Zimra’s Commissioner-General, Ms Regina Chinamasa, had confirmed that in 2021, the e-service system was non-functional, prompting the Authority to put in place mechanisms to ensure that taxpayers were able to submit their returns to facilitate revenue collection.
“Initially, the Authority had used the e-mail facility where people submitted their returns through their e-mails.
“Later in 2022, they developed an in-house solution (e-taxes) to mitigate the challenge the taxpayers were facing. The long-term solution was the implementation of the TaRMS which was deployed in 2023 with a four-life deployment period ending December 2024,” further reads the report.
The PAC added that the e-service platform’s poor performance and frequent downtime had hindered taxpayers’ ability to submit returns, potentially affecting revenue collection.
It said Zimra’s reliance on e-mail submissions as a temporary solution was not a secure or efficient method for handling sensitive tax information.
“The development of an in-house solution (e-taxes) and the implementation of the TaRMS were positive steps, but the delay in deploying TaRMS until late 2023 was a matter of concern.
“Zimra must ensure the TaRMS is fully functional and user-friendly by the end of the deployment period, that is December 2025, to prevent further disruptions.
“Zimra must develop a comprehensive contingency plan to address potential system failures and minimise downtime by 31 December 2025,” PAC said in the report.
It also recommended that Zimra conduct a thorough review of the e-mail submission process to ensure the security and integrity of taxpayer data, by December 31.
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